From coach
to couch
From Coach to couch
Our History — A lot has changed since Eilersen’s story began back in 1895, but our founding principle has always stayed the same – to comfort you, and bring beauty to your
world.
ONCE UPON A TIME, in a kingdom by the sea, there lived a young man, who was usually good with his hands.
In spite of his humble age, he had known all his life that one day he would show the world, what those hands were capable of. His name was Niels Eilersen, he lived in a village called Stensby, and the kingdom was Denmark.
“Time to move on”, his father said one day, as fathers are prone to say.
So Niels took his kitbag to a tiny chamber above the workshop of the wheelwright in Stensby. The wheelwright had kept an eye on Niels and his hands for some time, and before our aspiring youth had time to think of what else life might have in store, he was a wheelwright’s apprentice.
In those days in the countryside, as you can imagine, there were lots of broken wheels to fix. If you were any good, there were wagons to mend, too, and maybe even carriages to build. And if you were very clever, the wealthy and the most serene might ask you to build a coach. But that was the stuff that an apprentice’s dreams are made of.
“I’m going to build a coach.”
After years of keeping their heads down and their noses clean, apprentices eventually stop being apprentices, but not until they have proved themselves, and each has had his craftsmanship put to the test.
Niels declared to his master, “but not just any coach. I will build a hunting wagon, and it is going to be the lightest and the strongest and the most manoeuvrable in the county.” The good wheelwright of Stensby was not a man to stand in the way of progress. Especially not, if it came in the shape of a promising youth, whom he himself had put his trust in.
So Niels Eilersen built his hunting wagon, and people came from outside the county to admire it, and though Niels did not own a horse to put in front of it, his coach became the start of a business that would grow into a dynasty.
The year was 1895, and Niels Eilersen was twenty-two years old, when he opened his own shop in the neighbouring town of Skamby, building wheels and carriages for a clientele on the move. Niels could make a living and took a wife. Business was good, but as it turned out, his sons had little faith in horses.
“Automobiles are the future,” they challenged their father. let us make them more comfortable to ride that horses.”
Now, we are not going to explain, how a wheelwright makes his wheels; only that you have to know how to bend wood in steam to perfection. Adapting from horse-drawn carriages to diesel-powered coaches seemed no far cry at all. Much less, if the steam was up and you knew which wood to pick from your stockists.
Eilersen were pioneers in steam-bent wood and soon became industry leaders in frameworks for cars and omnibuses. In 1934, with half of Skamby on the payroll, the factory burned to the ground. Now what?
Steel parts and assembly lines were all the rage in the automotive industry. Rebuilding a production based on skilful carpentry made little sense. Not unless you focused your skills on making blind frames for upholstered omnibus seats.
The world was at the brink of war, and beech wood would soon be just about the only thing in unlimited supply. Cars stood still and genuine horsepower was back in business, but a market for readymade furniture was budding.
Post-war economies called for moderate measures. Early models were modest spindle backs of beech wood. Next came runners, and we had rocking chairs. Customers were saddler’s workshops that would order one in black, one in white and one untreated.
Rumours of ease and toughness travelled, with Eilersen’s salesmen in hot pursuit. Back in Skamby, Eiler Eilersen invented a drill to bore holes in the seat for spindles and legs in one go. Precision and speed has always kept competition at bay.
In Copenhagen, cabinetmakers were carving names for themselves drawing furniture, and Eilersen drew on the best. Danish Design combined high-quality craftsmanship with industrial production and freedom of individual expression. Eilersen #4, a hardwood modular sofa with loose cushions, could be extended to infinite length and sold like hotcakes.
It was time for a new generation to stretch its wings.
Eiler’s son Jens was the oldest and took control. His brother Peter was in charge of sales and procurement. The 1960s were roaring, and at an exhibition Peter fell in love with a safari chair. It was clean and minimal, and Jens had an idea. “Let’s take it apart and add holes and bolts, it’ll be a lot cheaper to transport. If people can afford two, they can build their own two-seater.”
Jens had developed a flair for anatomy sketching athletic shapes during class, and he had a knack for thinking in three dimensions. Designers would have to prove their ideas, which Jens would translate into live models to test their comfort.
One morning after a long night in the studio, Jens called the designer, whose wife answered that he was still in bed. “It’s like that every time he’s been with you. Your talks really wear him out.”
Eilersen became a household name in Denmark, when a boxy lounger seated prominent guests in Saturday’s Corner, a talk show that would run for years. Dimensions had a long way to go, though, to comply with Jens’ classic ideals.
“Most things that go into a square are peaceful to the eye. The Greeks put the Golden Section to work, but to create something beautiful you sometimes have to cheat. One or two centimetres can make a world of difference. The trick is to get away with it without anyone noticing.”
1979 saw Stratos, the first couch designed exclusively by Jens Juul Eilersen. Its balanced lines and generous abundance created an immediate emotional response, and imitations popped up high and low.
Three new designs were presented in rapid succession at international furniture shows. Jens had struck a chord with a mindful and discerning audience, and Eilersen began to appear in high-street windows from Hilversum to Honolulu.
Americans in particular took to Eilersen’s shapely universe, and before long transport costs became an issue. To keep price tags from swelling, something would have to change.
In Skamby, Jens’ oldest son Anders had stepped up. Together, father and son looked to China for craftsmanship that would make the cut. A little southeast of Beijing, they found what they were looking for.
It would take some lecturing, but little by little quality improved in Tianjin. With new bespoke production methods, sofas could even be made to measure at little or no extra cost.
Now, if you could have your couch exactly the way you wanted it, would you wait six weeks for it to sail from China? Time to travel again.
Slovakia, with its industrious, true-to-word and straightforward mentality, turned out to feel like home. In 2011, the last sofa was built in Skamby, and Jens’ second son Nils took charge of Eilersen Production in Velky Krtis.
Out east, efficiency was reaching a point where Anders decided that it was time to make an offer, and since 2014 our name has been over the door in Tianjin.
Skamby has been converted into a 1600-m2 showroom. Jens keeps turning out new designs, Anders controls worldwide sales, and Nils is head of marketing, production and procurement.
Together, they share an innate belief that if you give your utmost, you can make the best sofa in the world. Somebody has to do it, as Niels Eilersen would have said.
And so our story comes to a close, but the fairytale lives on. There are members of the family to whom it feels like it has only just begun.